6th February, 2025
Michael Adeshina
The administration of President Donald Trump has issued a directive to the General Services Administration, instructing them to forthwith terminate all media contracts that are presently being expensed by the aforementioned agency.
According to Axios, the mail from the White House reads: “GSA team, please do two things. Pull all contracts for Politico, BBC, E&E (Politico sub) and Bloomberg. Pull all media contracts for just GSA – cancel every single media contract today for GSA only.”
This directive was precipitated by the discovery, made by Elon Musk and allies of President Trump, of substantial expenditures incurred by the agency (GSA) in subscribing to Politico Pro, a policy tracking service widely utilized within the Washington establishment.
This revelation, which was facilitated by a publicly accessible database detailing U.S. government expenditures, inadvertently gave rise to spurious theories circulating on social media platforms, falsely alleging that the Biden administration was providing clandestine funding to media outlets antagonistic to President Trump.
In response to the resultant outcry from right-wing quarters, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Wednesday that the executive branch would henceforth discontinue all expenditures on Politico subscriptions.
The General Services Administration, which is responsible for managing real estate, procurement, and technology services on behalf of the federal government, has also initiated cuts to other individual contracts, including a Treasury Department contract with The New York Times.
In a concerted effort to debunk the fallacious conspiracy theories circulating about the company’s alleged receipt of government funding, Politico’s executive leadership addressed the issue directly in a communiqué to readers on Thursday.
The company’s statement unequivocally asserted that POLITICO is a privately owned entity, which has never received any form of government funding or subsidy throughout its 18-year history.
The statement from the company reads: “POLITICO is a privately owned company. We have never received any government funding — no subsidies, no grants, no handouts. Not one dime, ever, in 18 years.
“POLITICO Pro is different. It is a professional subscription service used by companies, organizations, and, yes, some government agencies.
“Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes—just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient.”
